Social Media and Breaking News: Ferguson
If you don’t know what I’m referring to when I say “Ferguson” you may want to check these Twitter, Tumblr, and Facebook tags first and foremost.
But what am I talking about, of course you’ve heard of it. Social media has changed the news sphere forever, meaning what happened spread to the whole world in a matter of minutes. Twitter in particular exploded with information about the killing of unarmed Ferguson teenager Michael Brown on August 9, 2014. Once word got out that policeman Darren Wilson had shot and killed the teen, it was impossible to keep up with the #ferguson hashtag for weeks on end.
The city of Ferguson was so outraged by what had happened that protests lasted for weeks — and are still ongoing today, a month later — while media was banned for quite some time. It was an attempt to cool everything off, but with social media’s existence it, of course, failed.
[caption id=”attachment_3737" align=”aligncenter” width=”514"]
Samples from reporter Wesley Lowery’s Twitter feed[/caption]
Let’s look at some standout events of the #Ferguson timeline. After Brown’s death, Several journalists who had been banned from the area kept watch on what was going on with protests and all news surrounding the murder. Wesley Lowery, Washington Post reporter, was arrested in McDonald’s for recording video of questionable actions of police in surrounding areas. He tweeted live updates for weeks while in Ferguson, and still continues today.
These journalists, as well as locals, kept the rest of the world up to date. Breaking news, live protest updates, police quotes, and more, were plastered all over Twitter. Twitter was reporting what mainstream news could not, as many journalists were banned, arrested, and unable to rely on anything but social media tools to get their messages out.
[caption id=”attachment_3724" align=”aligncenter” width=”566"]
Snippet from the Reddit feed[/caption]
At home, Reddit and Anonymous were taking part as well. Reddit’s live updates feed provided users up to date information on important events and tweets in the city of Ferguson. Updates were posted several times a day until September 4th, when Ferguson’s state of emergency was lifted. Meanwhile “hactivists” Anonymous shut down Ferguson City Hall’s website and phone lines, making officials resort to communicating only by text message. They also attempted to uncover the identity of the police officer who had shot and killed Brown — at this stage his name had not yet been released — and used Twitter to spread the message of justice for Mike Brown.
Another hashtag popped up shortly after the initial shooting, #iftheygunnedmedown. The hashtag was filled with American youths posting two images of themselves side by side to show how the media could manipulate their image to mainstream audiences, just as they did by showing a false image of victim Brown. The Twitter trend quickly jumped to #1 and is still to this day being used by passionate young people.
[caption id=”attachment_3725" align=”aligncenter” width=”595"]
#iftheygunnedmedown Twitter trend[/caption]
Now, a month later, Twitter is still being used as the primary news source for all things Ferguson. Activist Sean King has investigated the goings-on of Ferguson police and is keeping his news feed active with daily updates. He said “I will share every source document & stand by it all. The scandal is deep & ugly. Here goes…” before tweeting documents, photos, and findings relating to the death of Michael Brown and protection of Darren Wilson. Another stream of his tweets can be found here.
Social media, Twitter in particular, is clearly the way news is spreading. I couldn’t name how many times in the past few years I’ve heard things first on Twitter. From Robin Williams’ death to the Boston Marathon bombings to everything Malaysia Airlines related, Twitter was the first port of call for me and millions of others for so many groundbreaking events.
Gone are the days when we’d have to wait 24 hours for a new paper to be printed, or we’d race to the TV to watch a “breaking news!” header flash in front of our favourite program. No, now we get it for free, and we get it immediately.
Twitter is even working on educating people on how to verify that tweets are real and trustworthy, and armed with these tools it’s only going to get bigger and better from here. My hopes are that more people start trusting social media as a legitimate source of news, because five years ago we would probably never have been made so aware of what happened in Ferguson. #justiceformikebrown
